Art, Earth, and Easter

Rhone's school had an art show open house. It was fun to wander around and see all the projects on the walls and chat with Rhone's teachers. It sure did make me feel grown up to be there though. We celebrated Earth Day by spending some time outside playing and getting our garden ready on a rainy Saturday. Easter was lots of fun. We started getting ready with a count down that told about the Easter story. Rhone loved the special activities and the egg hunt. Like always he was spoiled. It was lots of fun having Ben home and friends over for a yummy ham dinner.

Rhone and mom when one of his projects from school.

Rhone showing us around his classroom.

Working our new garden spot. We finally have our seeds planted. Ben is so sweet for humoring me and my hobby.

I sent Rhone on an outdoor scavenger hunt. He had to find everything I found for his container. He really had fun with this and it was so simple.

Flying the kite all by himself

Earth day soil. Rhone was pretty upset when I took a bite. He wasn't buying that it was cookies.


Rhone loved the Easter count down my friend made for us. Each egg had an item that related to the story of the crucifixion and scripture reference.

Making Easter egg cookies. The messier the better right :)

Squeezing was a big hit. This was the first time we have tried it.

Yes that egg is mid air. Good thing it was warm enough to die them outside!




Showing off our finished eggs.

Rhone with his baskets (Nana sent stuff for one).

Rhone was excited to try out these bubbles. I thought colored bubbles sounded fun, but they turned out to be......

.....messy!! The bottle said "washable". Ben was not impressed with the mess, but Rhone was so delighted.

On the egg hunt. Rhone was using his new binoculars on the hunt.

Family shot with all the loot.

We were able to have a few friends over for dinner. We bought a fresh ham at the local butcher shop and I made a glaze for it. It turned out really yummy. The little boys had fun on a little egg hunt and the adults had a nice dinner without kiddos at the big table.

The table

I thought these little peep nests were pretty creative. The moms got daffodils filled with jellybeans for their place cards.
I made these peanut butter eggs for a little favor for all the guests. They were really good.


For dessert we had mini mud, banana, and almond berry pies.

A picture of the little egg hunters (notice the one on the far right enjoying his peanut butter egg?)

cowboys and Easter Bunnies

We have had a rough go of it lately. Rhone had a stomach bug that lasted almost 2 weeks. Talk about putting your potty training skills to the test. We have survived a flat tire, a broken cell phone, and Ben on the road. We are just barely feeling like life is getting back to normal. Ben's squadron had a children's Easter party that included an egg hunt, cookie decorating, and crafts. We had a great time.

Some of our friends from Ben's work hosted a cowboy party complete with a mechanical bull and a bounce house. Everyone took a turn on the bull and Rhone LOVED the bounce house. We had a hard time getting him to leave. We took a trip to the airplane museum on base. Rhone had a great time, but he was pretty disappointed that we couldn't turn on any of the planes.

Rhone with the Easter Bunny and his bag of eggs from the hunt.


Easter Bunny pilot Rhone
Once Rhone found out there was candy in the eggs, he just wanted to eat the ones he had instead of find more. Here is is with his laughy taffy in his mouth.


Rhone and Ben heading to the party.


Getting on the bull (no I didn't hold on with both hands).

Ben with some of the guys and gals from work.


Bull rider Rhone




One of the 1st trips to the beach. Just warm enough to play in the sand.



Rhone loved running around and seeing all the planes with Ben.

Rhone in a T-38 simulator

Rhone flying the little plane. (He didn't want to, but I made him for the picture that's why there's no smile).

not much

We haven't been too exciting around here. Ben has been on and off missions and in 1 hour notice, so it's limited what we can do. He was able to go to England for the first time and see one of our friends from college (Ben actually met him on his mission in the Czech).

We have mostly been staying close to home. We been working on the yard and house. Hopefully when it warms up, everything is still alive. Rhone loves being outside, so he is happy these days. We bought a new wagon to haul rocks in. We put it together late one night and Rhone insisted on a ride. So we loaded him up in his jammies with his pillow, dog, and blanket. One lap around the neighborhood and he was sleeping like an angel. We went bowling one night for family night with some of our friends. It was wild, I mean fun :) with 3 little boys. We had a great time and Rhone has been asking to "throw ball" ever since.

Speaking of Rhone he is saying such fun things these days. Last night on our way upstairs for bed he said, "mom stairs too big, need ride". He has been saying, "yes siree" too. I have no idea where he gets these things from- makes me scared for when he gets bigger and hears all sorts of things. Tonight Rhone and I went to chick fil a for dinner. He was in the play area and I heard an older boys say, "have you seen carson?" Rhone thought for a second and said, "uhh, no" like he knew who the kid was. He's growing up so fast!

Hauling the rocks and Rhone to the backyard


Rhone was in heaven with all the rocks! We got a load last week and he has been asking for more rocks ever since. He was actually helpful (see the rocks landing in the wagon).

We've been squeezing a little art here and there. Rhone loves glitter, because he likes the shaking it out. You gotta watch him with the salt a pepper :)

Rhone giving Wyatt kisses at dinner after bowling.

Our family
Teaching little boys to take turns is hard, but they were pretty good by the end. There were no smashed toes, so we consider that a success.

Victory dance!
Rhone is my little puddle monster. I have to admit that I like me some puddle jumping too. Ben, not so much. Rhone and I spent one rainy afternoon jumping in puddles and throwing rocks in the pond. It's moments like those when I am so grateful that I get to be with Rhone all day. I would hate to miss out on these adventures together. We even had to head back out in the dark when Ben got home, who still didn't jump in the puddles.

so lucky

Ben was on crew rest for St. Patty's Day, so we had him with us all day. We sure did feel lucky. We had shamrock pancakes for breakfast and saw what little leprechauns left behind.

Aren't these little leprechaun pants adorable.


We did some yard work since it was a little bit warmer. Rhone loved the rocks!

We did a little shamrock stamping in the afternoon.

Made a rainbow by sorting and gluing marshmallows.


Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner

Rhone got to stay up late and make a fruit rainbow...

...and run around the front yard like a wild man with his shamrock glow stick.

around here

I haven't been too great about blogging, but that doesn't mean that big things are happening around here. The first big news is that Rhone started "school". He goes once a week for 3 hours. I picked the program because it's more about open play and social interaction than letters, numbers, colors, ect. Social skills and learning how to be happy without his mom near by are the things I think Rhone really needs. The first day went OK. There were no tears at good bye because we had talked about that fact that mom couldn't stay at school. The second day was really really terrible, but by the 3rd day he wasn't crying as much and he even started participating in more of the activities. I am so happy that my little man is learning new skills, but a tiny bit sad to see him looking so grown up.

Speaking of growing up, we took the big plunge and started potty training. That's mostly why I haven't be blogging. Every minute was spent thinking about what I was doing right or wrong, or weather it was time for a potty break (potty training sure was an emotional roller coaster for me- I hated feeling like there were set backs). We quit diapers cold turkey, no pull ups-not even at night. We got out a trash bag in the morning and went on a hunt to find all the diapers and "throw them away". He's wore big boy underwear since then. It's been a little over 2 weeks and he is doing pretty good both day and night.

Ben has been working on training on the C-5M. It is the new upgraded model of his old plane. He's worked really really long days and logging some hours on his masters. I haven been busy worrying about making all these transitions with little Rhone go smoothly and putting together projects for my church calling and a few projects around the house.

Rhone walking into his first day at school.

Rhone heading into his classroom.

Onesies that I made
I made our little family into silhouettes
We celebrated mardi gras-well by celebrate I mean made masks and ate some southern food (no beads and booze here).

Eating our Cajun chicken and okra

After months of being stored in our friends garage (thanks Amy and Barrett!), we finally managed to get Ben's monster grill that he got for Christmas to our house. We did a trial run with Brats, but we can't wait to see what yummy things we can get off the cast iron grates and off the rotisserie.

Rhone was kind enough to plant and water this pot for me. He is such a sweet helper :)